News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

LISTEN: What pastor Anderson said in Botswana

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 10:29 PM PDT

Most African countries have laws against homosexuality. Perhaps US pastor Steven Anderson thought he would be welcomed in Botswana with open arms.

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Washington - Most African countries have laws against homosexuality. Perhaps US pastor Steven Anderson thought he would be welcomed in Botswana with open arms.

The Tempe, Arizona pastor managed to enter the country, and get on the radio there. On the air, he said the people killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, this summer were "disgusting homosexuals who the Bible says were worthy of death".

AFP reports that he was speaking to Gabz FM on Tuesday morning. He criticised "drunkenness and alcoholism" in Botswana, and repeated his views on homosexuality, calling a gay guest on the show "disgusting".

"He should be killed," the pastor said.

Anderson reportedly also used the interview to call for paedophiles and adulterers to be killed and to say that the Bible barred women from preaching in church. He also claimed that he had reached Botswana by way of Ethiopia.

Police then arrived at the radio station and initiated a deportation procedure.

"He was picked up at the radio station. I said they should pick him up and show him out of the country," Botswana's president, Ian Khama, said in an interview with Reuters. "We don't want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country."

Ironically, Botswana criminalises homosexuality. Although the law is seldom enforced, homosexual acts can be punished with a large fine or up to seven years of imprisonment.

The full radio interview (58 minutes long)

Anderson has said that his planned Africa tour is a "soul-winning marathon" and is not focused on demonising gays and lesbians.

The Christian preacher arrived in Botswana last Thursday for a "soul-winning" event, just days after he was banned from visiting neighbouring South Africa over his characterisation of gays as "sodomites" and "paedophiles."

According to a Reuters report, Anderson denied that he was being deported. On his church's Facebook page, he said his brief visit to Botswana was a success.

 

Who is Steven Anderson?

Anderson leads the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona. He gained notoriety after the Orlando attack in June for saying that the shootings meant "there's 50 less pedophiles in this world."

Steven Anderson's message is conveyed in his church's doctrinal statement, which says that "homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes with the death penalty."

A Holocaust denier, he prayed for the death of US President Barack Obama in 2009 over his pro-choice stance on abortion, and called the victims of the November 2015 attack on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris "devil worshippers".

Washington Post, AFP

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Total shutdown in Zim not possible, say analysts

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 12:50 PM PDT

A total shutdown, as planned by activists #Tajamuka, has little chance of success because only 20% of Zimbabweans are employed in the formal sector.

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Harare - The total shutdown, dubbed “Shut Down Take 3”, planned by activists #Tajamuka, largely went unheeded last month, with most Harare residents opting to go about their normal businesses.

Zimbabwe being predominantly an informal economy, citizens could be pardoned for not paying much attention to the calls to stay home as a way of forcing President Robert Mugabe, 92, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, to step down.

Although most people might agree with the #Tajamuka activists that the president has overstayed and in the process had contributed to the ruin that the country has found itself in, many would disagree on the means of achieving the goal.

Former Zanu PF legislator, Temba Mliswa, said the shutdown, despite noble intentions, had disastrous consequences considering that the majority of the people were now in the informal sector and stood to lose a lot.

Political analyst, Fortune Gwaze said Zimbabwe’s economy was largely informalised with its structure highly politicised.

“The country’s industrial capacity utilisation is less than 35 percent and unemployment is at 80 percent, so you would realise that most people have joined in the informal sector in order to cushion themselves, so naturally a shutdown in that environment is most likely not to be successful,” he said.

Gwaze said the informal sector was also controlled by Zanu PF, with high ranking officials owning corner shops which they let out for patronage.

“So supporting a shutdown will be perceived as going against the party; which has drastic consequences. There are chances that those that are in solidarity with the citizens would be labelled, victimised because the party has the oiled machinery to ensure that such companies are shut down,” he said.

African News Agency

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SA must intervene in DRC crisis, says US

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 11:31 AM PDT

The United States has called on SA to use its influence to prevent this week's political violence from spiraling out of control.

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Pretoria - The United States has on Tuesday, called on South Africa to use its special influence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to prevent this week’s explosion of political violence there spinning out of control.

Tom Perriello, US Special Envoy to the Great Lakes said there was a brief opportunity between now and December 19 — when DRC President Joseph Kabila is supposed to stand down — for South Africa and other countries to try to influence events.

He noted that South Africa had extra clout in the DRC — and in neighbouring Burundi where a 17-month-long crisis is still raging — because of its long and active engagement in resolving previous conflicts in both countries.

This was the moment for South Africa and other African leaders to engage decisively in the DRC while there was still hope of resolving the crisis though the chances had diminished since Monday’s violence.

The opposition said about 50 people have been killed while the government has put the figure at 17, including some policemen, since violence erupted on Monday when the Congolese authorities failed to announce a date for new presidential elections.

They were obliged to do so on that date, which is three months before Kabila should stand down after serving his constitutionally-limited two terms.

Briefing African journalists by phone from Washington, Perriello would not say outright that it was now clear that Kabila had no intention of stepping down at all.

But he did say that Kabila could have avoided the violence which erupted on Monday if he had announced any time over the last year that he was ready to hand over power.

Perriello said the government’s crackdown on peaceful opposition protests had also helped provoke Monday’s violence. Perriello has just returned from ten days in Kinshasa where he tried to help the government and opposition negotiate a resolution to the growing crisis.

He was manhandled and insulted at the airport as he flew out, prompting strong protests from Washington.

Last week Kabila’s justice minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba and some opposition members announced a plan to form an interim government, including members of the opposition, to run the country until elections were held mid-2017.

But the electoral commission’s failure to announce an election date on Monday suggested the plan had failed. Asked if the US had supported it, Perriello said there were many difference proposals and election timelines bouncing around in Kinshasa last week.

The US just wanted elections as soon as possible and its technical advisers had said these were possible in 2017. Elections should have been held by November to enable a new president to take office from Kabila by the December 19 deadline.

But the DRC government has been dragging its feet, claiming that an obsolete voters roll could not be updated by that time, or that local and provincial elections had to be held before the presidential elections, which would push back the timetable.

Perriello said the US was ready to impose sanctions on individuals responsible for violence or frustrating democracy.

But he also said the situation could be rescued and appealed to both sides to tone down their tactics and their rhetoric to make that possible. He held both sides responsible but attributed most of the blame to the government, mainly for its violation of human rights, including suppression of legitimate dissent.

African News Agency

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US needs a concrete vision on Africa

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 11:00 AM PDT

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton has articulated any concrete vision for an African policy, writes Julius Amin.

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Neither the Republican nominee Donald Trump nor the democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has articulated any concrete vision for an African policy, writes Julius Amin.

Dayton, Ohio - Fifty six years ago, John F. Kennedy made 479 references to Africa during the US presidential campaign.

He observed that America had lost ground on the continent because of failures to meet the “need and aspirations of the African people”.

President Kennedy charted a new path in US-Africa relations. He created the Peace Corps, and the United States Agency for International Development. And, unlike his predecessors, he began to show more respect and dignity for African leaders.

To African people, Kennedy was the “great one,” and a “friend of the coloured man everywhere”. He began the process to change the “ugly American” image which characterised his predecessor, Dwight Eisenhower’s, foreign policy towards the Third World.

But the new directions initiated by Kennedy were short-lived as his successors reverted to previous policies. While Lyndon Johnson labelled Africans “cannibals” , Richard Nixon ridiculed blacks as “genetically inferior” to whites. And, Ronald Reagan’s pro-Apartheid policy of Constructive Engagement was consistent with his overall African policy.

Though more recently during President Barack Obama’s presidency there was a shift in policy, there continues to be immense and sometimes shameful ignorance in America about Africa.

Popular notions range from seeing the continent through a monolithic lens to depicting it as suffocated with disease, tribal wars, famine, corruption, cannibals and crime.

Even the Peace Corps and university students, both a hallmark of American idealism, were not immune. While some Peace Corps officials talked of “primitive mud huts” all over Africa’s landscape, college students imagined the region to be a place of destruction, primitive conditions, and injustice, and where people practice strange religions.

Though scholars have long discarded those images and corrected the historical record, the negative perceptions have persisted, and continue to dominate the thinking of major political leaders in America.

In an increasingly interconnected and technological global environment, ignorance of Africa is no longer acceptable. This, especially from major political leaders. Yet, examples of such ignorance are evident in the current American presidential campaign. Neither the Republican nominee Donald Trump nor the democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has articulated any concrete vision for an African policy.

During the primary season, Africa came up and when it did it was either in the context of terrorism or as an afterthought. There seems to be little realisation by both candidates that in the current fluid and interdependent global environment, Africa has emerged as a strategic partner in trade, peace, and security. A case in point is the US African Command which collaborates with African governments and regional organisations to combat terrorism.

Africa, the second largest continent, is over three times the size of the US and has 54 nations. It is the ancestral home of roughly 13% of America’s population; namely African-Americans.

Its complex cultures, languages, and religions have contributed to global cultures. It is the ancestral site of humankind. It is home to renowned economic, social and educational institutions including the University of Cape Town, University of Ghana, and the University of Ibadan. Its other impressive institutions include the Dangote Group businesses and the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation. It is also the land of vital minerals such as coltan, essential for the world’s software and telecommunication industry.

Africa’s raw materials are vital to the global economic system. Its rising consumer culture has transformed the continent into a major market for manufactured goods.

Two years ago at the US-African Leaders Summit President Obama called for the creation of “genuine partnership” in US-Africa relations. Africa is now a key battleground for the US and China where both nations are locked in a struggle to gain a competitive edge.

From Cairo to Cape Town, China through its Forum of China Africa Cooperation and other endeavours, has surpassed US investments on the continent.

Engaging Africa in a much more serious way, particularly within the foreign policy discourse in the American presidential campaign, would be an important step. Both candidates must build on the foundation started by Kennedy and later continued by Obama which sees Africa as a “fundamental part of our interconnected world,” and seek a relationship based on mutual “responsibility” and “respect”.

Both things are doable. Trump and Clinton should articulate a concrete vision and means by which they will implement it. Development is not just about economic imperatives, and other quantitative things, it also entails informed knowledge.

The time has come for developed nations to eliminate the large pockets of ignorance which exist in their society about Africa and other peoples. Globalisation demands that people ask new questions, seek new answers, and think differently. For all the challenges, African communities are coming together. It is, indeed, a continent on the rise and can no longer be ignored or marginalised.

* Julius A. Amin is Professor, Department of History, University of Dayton.

** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.

The Conversation

The Conversation

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Anderson to be deported from Botswana - Khama

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 04:22 AM PDT

President Ian Khama of Botswana wants controversial US pastor Steven Anderson shown out of the country.

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Gaborone - President Ian Khama of Botswana said on Tuesday he had ordered the arrest and deportation of US pastor Steven Anderson, who was banned from neighbouring South Africa last week over his anti-gay views.

Anderson, of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona, notoriously welcomed the gunning down in June of 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida by saying "there's 50 less paedophiles in this world".

Khama told Reuters he had ordered Anderson's immediate arrest and deportation after the pastor said in an interview with a local radio station in the capital Gabarone on Tuesday morning that gays and lesbians should be killed.

"He was picked up at the radio station. I said they should pick him up and show him out of the country," Khama said in an interview. "We don't want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country."

The president said Anderson had been put on a visa watch-list two days ago after being barred from South Africa but appeared to have slipped into Botswana before all border posts were fully alerted.

Banning him from South Africa on September 13, that country's home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba also equated Anderson's views with hate speech.

Anderson denied he was being deported.

 

 

"I am not being arrested. I am leaving Botswana voluntarily," he told witnesses at the radio station, adding in the local Setswana language that he loved Botswana very much.

During Tuesday's radio interview, in which he also called for paedophiles and adulterers to be killed and said the Bible barred women from preaching in church, Anderson said he had arrived in Botswana last Thursday from Ethiopia.

Onkokame Mosweu, a commentator on gay and lesbian affairs, welcomed the government's move to remove Anderson, adding: "He should have never been allowed to come to Botswana in the first place."

Reuters

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Cape pastor flies out to meet anti-gay US preacher

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 03:15 AM PDT

Cape Town pastor Oscar Bougardt has flown to Botswana to meet with US preacher Steven Anderson, who has been barred from entering SA.

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Cape Town - Cape Town pastor Oscar Bougardt has flown to Botswana to meet with anti-gay US preacher Steven Anderson to discuss the “future of churches in South Africa”.

Bougardt, who was previously sued for R1 million for preaching against homosexuality, offered the controversial American pastor accommodation in Cape Town after a hotel cancelled his reservation due to his controversial view on gays.

Anderson turned his sights to the neighbouring country after Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba banned him from South Africa due to his hate speech.

Anderson of the Faithful World Baptist Church and 20 members of his flock were to come to Joburg over the weekend on a “soul-winning” campaign.

But after an outcry by the LGBTI community and the SA Human Rights Commission, and an online petition which garnered 60 000 signatures, he was told he and his entourage were not welcome.

Meanwhile, three members from Anderson’s congregation were blocked from entering the country on Saturday, according to Home Affairs.

Anderson arrived in Botswana on Friday.

On Monday, Bougardt of Calvary Hope Ministries in Strandfontein, boarded a plane at Cape Town International Airport for Botswana.

Bougardt would not divulge where in Botswana they would be meeting.

He told the Daily Voice at the airport on Monday: “I will meet him at a hotel and the main reason for our meeting is to discuss future trips to Africa and South Africa. I am very excited to meet with him.”

Bougardt says the ban has only “strengthened his relationship” with Anderson: “Like me he is not afraid to preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. To date, 65 people came to know Jesus Christ on his soul winning marathon and he has officially started a church in Botswana.”

Bougardt slammed Home Affairs for Anderson’s ban.

“I feel that it was not the pastor that was denied entry into SA, but it was an attempt of the Devil to stop the true Word of God being preached in SA,” he said. “He was on trial, found guilty and sentence without being in country, not by government, but by homosexuals.”

Daily Voice

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Zim wants researchers to look at sanctions

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 01:55 AM PDT

The Zimbabwe government is looking for researchers to carry out an in-depth study on the impact of economic sanctions on the country.

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Harare - The Zimbabwe government is looking for local and international researchers to carry out an in-depth study on the impact of economic sanctions imposed by the West in the early 2000s following the country's controversial land reform programme and contested governance issues.

A statement from the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development on Monday said the sanctions had mainly been described from a political perspective.

"This has led to varying views being expressed depending on one's political inclination," the statement said.

The study will cover the sanctions' impact on ordinary people in particular and the country and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region in general and has a budget of US$150,000.

"In reality, the core characteristics of these sanctions were initiated by the temporary withdrawal of Zimbabwe's credit lines by the World Bank in 1997. This was followed by a complete termination of Balance of Payments (BoP) support to the country in 2001," the statement said.

"The African Development Bank similarly stopped Zimbabwe's BoP support in 1998 and so did the International Monetary Fund in 1999."

The socio-economic environment caused by the sanctions had resulted in several donor agencies and international non-governmental organisations relocating to neighbouring countries, it added.

"It has since been estimated that the sanctions have cost Zimbabwe well in excess of US$42 billion since 2001, which seriously affected various vulnerable groups of the country's population," the statement said.

The ministry further argued that also as a result of the sanctions, many skilled Zimbabweans had left the country, thereby creating a huge human capital capacity gap, while technology transfer from advanced countries suffered significant retardation.

Debate has raged over the years on the impact of the sanctions, with the government calling them such while opposition parties and western governments called them restrictive measures.

The European Union and the United States have been at the centre of the sanctions, with the US targeted sanctions applying to 98 Zimbabwean individuals and 68 entities (mostly farms and legal entities owned by the 98 individuals) as of March 14, 2016.

The US said it implemented the targeted sanctions programme in 2003 as a result of the actions and policies of certain members of the government of Zimbabwe and other persons undermining democratic institutions and processes in Zimbabwe. It also denies that it maintains an embargo on Zimbabwe, saying that only certain persons have been targeted for sanctions on the basis of their connection to the government of Zimbabwe.

The US also denies that it is preventing Zimbabwe's access to international financial assistance and says that Zimbabwe became ineligible for multilateral loans in 1999, well before the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA), because it had stopped repaying loans owed to international financial institutions.

The US ambassador to Zimbabwe Harry Thomas Junior acknowledged in June that the sanctions, although targeted, might have had a negative bearing on ordinary Zimbabweans.

"However, we've not carried out a study to ascertain the effects of the sanctions, but we have to try to sort out the unintended consequences of sanctions to ordinary people out there," he was quoted as saying.

On its part, the EU early this year renewed its remaining sanctions against Zimbabwe for a further year, until 20 February 2017, meaning an asset freeze and travel ban will continue to apply to President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace.

While an arms embargo exists, the EU has however lifted sanctions on 78 other people and eight entities in respect of whom sanctions had previously been in existence.

Zimbabwean President Mugabe has over the years taken every opportunity to denounce the "illegal sanctions" saying that they were a tool by the West to effect regime change in the country.

Xinhua

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Boko Haram beheads village chief in attack

Posted: 20 Sep 2016 01:48 AM PDT

A self-defence group says Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria and beheaded the local chief and his son.

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Bauchi, Nigeria - A self-defence group says Boko Haram insurgents have attacked a village in northeast Nigeria and beheaded the local chief and his son.

Abbas Gavi of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria said the Islamic extremists came to the village of Tallari before dawn on Monday.

He says they slit the throat of village chief Ba' Lawan and his son, then set their home and others on fire.

Then they opened fire on fleeing villagers, killing two people and injuring others.

Tallari is near Chibok, the town from which the extremists kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in April 2014. Dozens escaped on their own but 217 girls remain missing.

Boko Haram has said it will swap the girls for detained extremists but the government says negotiations have faltered as the group suffers a leadership struggle.

AP

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